This is a tangent, but has anyone else noticed that the average "stoner" is now someone with life-impairing anxiety?
This was not the case 10-15 years ago when smoking was a highly social activity and still a subculture attached to certain music, interests, and countercultural social groups.
I'm not sure if this has more to do with decriminalization/legalization changing the character of the typical user or more to do with the fact that severe anxiety seems to be several times more common among people under 35.
It has to do with the chemical composition of today's marijuana, actually. Cannabis potency (measured by THC content) has surged over the past decade, making the drug more psychoactive and contributing to anxiety-inducing disassociative episodes.
This sounds like DEA propaganda but the hypothesis is plausible to me. I've had many conversations with former stoners who have had a few horrible experiences while smoking: they have some panic attack or extreme anxiety, then marijuana is associated with anxiety, then they quit smoking. In my case, I wasn't quite permabaked but I'd get high whenever I'd have the chance from age 16 to 20 - then I had a few bad experiences, specifically after smoking/eating legal marijuana that was "loud" i.e. extremely, extremely potent. No more marijuana for me!
